An Evening of My Own & the Sinus Infection from hell

Miracle of all miracles, I actually finished all of my Ebay� work before midnight and got to spend the evening surfing the web. I began in search of meaningful and unique webrings, wasted hours on Ringsurf's� slow as molasses server, but found one� that was actually what I was looking for. Then I went through my bookmarks of political and activist sites of interest and added a whole slew of those (see Left Field links below). I've been making new pretty little banners & buttons for my main website� also, playing with Photoshop and preparing for my eventual site re-design.

I've been suffering from the sinus infection that won't go away since sometime in October (or perhaps September, I've lost track). After two doctor's visits (actually my annual physical in two parts because my new insurance company won't pay for "preventative care"... huh?), the only useful things I've found are that my cholesterol has reached an all-time high and that Xanax isn't as great as it used to be...

Or perhaps I've become acclimated to Benzodiazepenes after years of taking Klonopin to sleep. I'm actually not an addict, I suffer from a neurological disorder that creates lots of side effects, including insomnia and horrendous muscle cramps. And I'll lie in bed wide awake for hours if I don't take something to knock me out. Lately, though, not much of anything seems to help. I've also developed an allergy to any form of antihistamine (yes, really), and suffer from year-round allergies, even food allergies and can't take anything really useful (my doctor gave me a steroid dosepack last time I went in, that's what I need, something to make it even harder for me to sleep).

All of my life, on top of my normal daily allergies, I always get an actual sinus infection about this time of year. Usually antibiotics will clear it up, but they're not working this time. It started with a general sense of dizziness in my inner ear, then developed into the stabbing pain in my sinuses (where the entire left side of my head was unbearably painful), and now I've settled into alternating between the earache and dizziness and a really annoying drip in my nose. I've found saline usually keeps these infections at bay, but this one latched onto me before I could stop it.

The weather in Houston has not been helping either. We've gone through periods of non-stop biblical rains and flooding, then after almost two weeks of warm and rainy, it's suddenly cold and windy. Then back again. With each weather change it feels like someone is trying to suck my brains out through my ear. So I've been spending even more time than usual in bed, though when the dizziness hits even laying in bed is uncomfortable.

I've been on the Atkin's diet� since summer, and was doing really well for about a month or two, but my cholesterol rating is evidence that I've been sneaking too many carbs. I was on Atkins several years ago and my cholesterol went to it's lowest level ever, and I even lost some weight, but I haven't looked at the scale in the last month or so (gulp). My husband lost 20 pounds without even trying just by the modified diet I've been serving him, but I think I stopped at about 8 pounds and have been holding since. Oh well, I need to start weightlifting again, or yoga, or something I can do at home that I'll enjoy. And drop the carbs again... and the holidays are almost upon us!

Oh well, almost 6am, off to bed for another day of tossing and turning and way too vivid dreams (not that there's anything wrong with that...).

Posted by Morticia at November 19, 2002 05:42 AM | TrackBack